East or South?

"Look Charles you clearly have promise, I know you didn't revise on that last test and you still got 100%"

"Got lucky"

"Look Charlie I know you hate putting effort into school but you have real promise, if you actually worked for once you could win a scholarship to the most prestigious middle school in the country"

"What's the point?"

"It would make your mother very happy I'm sure.. I hear she's expecting, don't you want to be a good example for your future sister?"

"Why would I want any of that. I just wanna play with my friends and have a carefree childhoo..."

"You and I both know that wont happen Charlie stop bullshitting me. I know you're smart enough to make it and I know that this is your only chance to escape this prison of a town, other kids have some money to rely on but we both know that isn't the case for you. If you ever want to get out of here then you have to do this. Don't end up like me."

"Now who's bullshiting? I know you went to college outside this town then got a job for seven years but then moved back to your home town out of the 'goodness of your own heart' cuz you're such a goddamn saint. I don't need your pity and dont use your petty story that you use to fuck gullible women to try to get me to do what you want and get better acclaim as a teacher and be promoted. What drones like you don't understand is life isn't something you can win, it's something ya tolerate. Stop trying to use kids as a ladder, you sick twisted freak and become great on your own if that's the only thing that will fill your vain shallow heart."

I walked out of the dimly lit room and slammed the door behind me.

I was such a brat back then. I should've taken the scholarship then at least I could've given Ellie something she actually wants or taken her to a school that actually challenges her, now all I can do is try to stop her from becoming me… the moment I knew I made a mistake was the first time I held Ellie in my arms. It was at that moment I knew I wanted to give her anything she wanted. But thanks to my stupidity and arrogance that wish was shot down dead. The teacher recommended another kid and he got in and as I said he was promoted to principal taking great pride and joy in shooting down every scholarship request I put out. Fucking asshole… I don't know if I mean me or the teacher at this point.

My first year of middle school. I spent my entire time in clubs and sport teams trying to become good enough to get a sport scholarship independent of the principles reach. But I wasn't good enough. By the time my third year rolled around I was filled with nothing but regret and bitterness. That year I became more sociable trying to forget about my failures, I even got a girlfriend but that summer they all lost touch with me as I got into games. I used them to fill the void of my friends leaving but as I played more and more they left leaving me shallow and hollow in a room with blue light shining into my face. If I'm honest I thought I'd never find friends again. I'm so glad I have Banana and Psye.

I sat on a rock staring at my stats and skill trees. This game is so big, there's so much to uncover and I haven't even gotten out of the first village. According to the servers you can't get into the capital unless you either plan to represent that city or are already sponsored by an in-game power like a church or village. The starting villages require 100 Gold to become a representative but they have unlimited places and no test. The cities however will give you bigger quests and better rewards, later in the game it also means you get privileges in property buying and guild placement as well as an ease to move between kingdoms. That's what I heard from the innkeeper but there's one position higher than representative of a capital and that can only be held by one person in the kingdom, currently it's held by an NPC but that will change. I'm going to represent a country as a royal champion. It opens a line of quests aiding the emperor and slaying continent ending monsters, I'll need to become at least level sixty before applying but if I stay ahead of everyone else then it should be fine, as long as the leveling curve doesn't get too steep I think I can get there in a couple of weeks.

"Aaaah this is sooo difficult, help me!!?" Banana is in front of me struggling to fight eight spiders, we found a lair but the spiders don't really give me Exp anymore.

"Nah I dont want to steal your Exp but hurry up so I can actually play I want to reach level twenty seven."

"Hey I never asked you, what's your US?"

"Are you planning to sell that info?"

"Maybe"

"You really think it'll go for that much"

"Yeah, maybe a couple hundred. I told you you have a bunch of fans and enemies."

"So if I fed you false info..."

"You'd be an asshole."

"Fair enough… hey you think there's an ability to make skills out there?"

"Maybe one to make weapons but making skills seems op right?"

"Maybe but not if there's like a damage cap and an amount you can make. Or a health toll every time you do it or consequences to the abilities."

"Wait, is that your ability???"

"No, just making conversation."

"Anyway wouldn't that be a bad ability and I thought this game doesn't have those"

"Touche but that's not fact, just my opinion."

"Alright with that I'm level fourteen."

"Psye won't be happy about that..."

"S.I? You mean I'm higher level than her now?"

"Maybe"

"Awesome!"

"Don't be weird though."

"I won't I'm never weird"

"Sure."

"Hey what's that supposed to mean!!!"

"Neeever mind" I said in a mocking tone a smile crawling across my face.

'Psye:

I'm at the village, you?

You:

Be right there.'

"Alright let's go."

"That was her? Do you have her number???? I don't think I can overlook such a betrayal."

"You and every other one of her fans. Stop your whining already and let's go."

"Cold!"

We rushed to the village passing through the autumn forest, a seemingly endless amount of red leaves dropping from the trees.I broke out of the forest to see the town, the stone town rising up high like a spire on a small rock platform. The city was in the middle of a lake wal=ter rushing from streams to fill the basin at the foot of the village. The bridge from the small secluded town to this forest is the only way in and out. Except for swimming of course. But I wouldn't advise that there are some pretty nasty legends about that water, there might be a high level monster in there. Currently I have nothing to combat a water type monster so I'll keep my distance and stick to forest monsters that can burn.

"Heeey! Assassin!"

"Hi, got any more dungeons?"

"Haha no I had a friend who worked on the game and he told me as a special favour because I'm so likeable."

"Fair but still annoying. I need to get a quest from the tavern."

"Oh you cant he won't give you one."

"That's cuz I paid him off and saved his daughter."

"You're pure evil"

I set off up the path heading for the tavern, the sun and wind on my face.

"So you're Banana?"

"Uuuum yes, you're uhh umm uhh"

"I'm Psye nice to meet you."

"Uh yes hello um its very uh nice to um uh meet you too"

"There um, something wrong with your connection?" She looked down at him smiling nervously.

"No um hold on."

I ran back down seeing the awkwardness.

"So Psye what level are you now?"

"Thirteen still I think."

"So banana what about you?"

"I'm fourteen now,"

He stuck his hands on his hips and closed his eyes, nodding like he expected praise.

"Well done..." Psye said, clapping her hands together signaling a change in topic.

"Oh before I forget, how many friend requests do you have Assassin?"

"45 thousand."

"Wait really!!!!!! I knew you had fans but I didn't know it was that many!!!!! Now you gotta tell me your US, I'll be rich!!!!!"

"Um, what is he talking about?"

"He wants to sell info about me to people for money."

"So he doesn't know your US?"

"Nah"

"Hey!!!! Quit talking about me like I'm not here! Wait, you told her but not me?!?!?!"

"Yeah but I know her irl but you're an enigma…. No, that's a little strong, you're a puzzle."

"HEY!!!!!!!!! I won't have this abuse!"

"Sorry sorry I'll stop, anyway Psye how many do you have?"

"15,000 it seems like you win."

"Hmm, that's much less than I thought. Maybe people are scared to send it anyway. It wasn't the bet that you had more than me so I think I owe you ten gold."

"Oh yes I forgot thaaaank you."

"It's fine there really isn't much use for gold yet."

"Yet?"

"Yeah I'm going to go to a bigger city tomorrow."

"You know I'm sure you could ally with the capital."

"Nah I'm shooting higher."

"There's something higher???"

"Yeah no one bothered to take the 'Alice's adventures' quest and can't get this dialogue or relationship with the innkeeper."

"Aaaah fine but I'll go for the capital representative"

"Me too."

"Probably right, only one person can have the title per kingdom and by my estimate the minimum for me would be level sixty."

"Alright enough chit chat E what quest did you get?"

"E?"

"Oh right different game"

"Don't worry about it anyway since we don't really care about the gold we don't need a quest if we fight a high enough level monster and keep the drops it will be much easier, the main problem with that is the lack of info since normally innkeepers won't sell that to people who aren't owned by a power but since i'm a sneaky guy he gave me the info without the quest. It's a handy relationship since I wouldn't be able to get quests until level sixty otherwise."

"Well ok… so what are we doing"

"Oh right well in the east there have been some sightings of monstrous lightning strikes and growling header in the distance. In the south there have been fierce winds and entire forests have been cut cleanly with every tree chopped down. And in the north well let's do that last cuz quite frankly I don't think we're ready for that but there's a fortress of evil mages and if we raid it the original owners will pay us no matter if we have a quest or not so you guys chose east or south."

"I dont think I'm ready for any of those man."

"Flip a coin."

"Fine, what a great help, I want some lightning skills so let's go east."

"How will that help getting lightning skills?"

I just smiled and started to run.

I have four free spaces left in my sheet, it grows every five levels meaning if I don't level up five times I might need to grind a little so I can steal the skills of the next one. And then I definitely want to grind a ton before fighting mages so I can steal all their magic. That way I'll be set for moving to a higher kingdom, I still want some essential skills like self healing and defence augmentation for obvious reasons like 'THIS GAME FRIGGIN HURTS MAN!!!!!!!' having defense skills will help me look brave whilst getting stabbed which is dumb I know but I dont really want to bawl and cry when I get attacked by a dragon, I'd prefer to go out with dignity even when a scaled flying lizard is eating my face. Especially if some girls are there.

That's something else, I want to form a guild at some point I think, maybe when more players from my old game transfer, I don't know if they will but I'll try to convince them at some point. Also if I do something scummy like holding tryouts showcasing USs I can steal them without any risk. That is if no one figures out my ability by then

We broke out of the forest, I've never explored the east, only going north and west.

We stood over a crater, the rocks tumbling down to the floor. Below us was a forest, the trees were steel reflecting the sun back into our eyes. The metallic glow glaring at us as we approached. A sign at the top asid that this crater was a volcano but the mineral rich stone means that every eruption only coats the land with steel and other metals but miners drill out the ground and mine away all the materials leaving the trees as million year old coffins holding the ancient wood.every ten thousand years the steel rusts away leaving the trees exposed for three minutes before the eruption. The trees have adapted to in that time absorb all the sunlight they need to keep alive whilst in an extremely wastless cycle of photosynthesis and respiration. It's a bizarre idea that could only exist in a game. The amount of detail and lore in this game is still insane.

Running down the steep hill we reached the bottom quickly. stumbling into the metallic forest, the trees sparkling as we passed through.

"Wow this place is beautiful."

"Yeah but where's the monster?"

"I don't like the look of this setting as a fight against a lightning monster."

"Good point, it's getting more scary."

"You guys stay back and focus on ranged damage."

"But I don't have any ranged attacks."

"And I'm not running away."

"Fine. let's start."